


Necessary Claiming

by Treerat



Series: Nessesary Claiming [2]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, F/M, Seaplanes, South and Central Pacific ocean, zootopia au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-02-14 11:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13006386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treerat/pseuds/Treerat
Summary: Takes place in the Zootopia world's version of the South Pacific shortly after WW 2 kicks off.Judy Hopps (former PI, now co-pilot) and Nick Wilde (seaplane pilot) deal with various problems that go with being in a war zone.  One in particular makes being hunted by enemy fighter planes look a bit simple by comparison.





	1. Necessary Claiming

"To our probation!" declared the vulpine tod.

"Justly deserved due to our vigorous efforts to right a great wrong!" the lapine doe added.

The pair, seated side-by-side close to one another, clanked their glasses together in salute and then took the obligatory sips from them.

"Nice of Liz to give us this," Judy said as she eyed the bottle of good wine sitting on the table.

It, like so many other luxury things, was hard to come by due to the ongoing war.

"I think she and George had it stashed back for some special event," Nick said.

The special event the pair was celebrating was a six months of probation that they had "earned" for an attack on a logistics officer at the supply depot. The guy had given them a partial load of substandard gas for a coast watcher delivery mission and that resulted in delaying them, at the drop off point, for more than an hour while they pulled out fouled spark plugs to clean them. That put them well within enemy airspace when light dawned. In flying low, about a couple of hundred feet off the water, they had flown almost over an enemy merchant ship who had, then, sent out a report indentifying them and giving their heading and speed. Once well and goodly out of sight, Nick changed course. Just as they had sighted a large island that he used as a way point, Judy saw some glints of light high over them; two fighter planes. Nick headed for the mountainous island and the fighter crews, then, spotted them and came down to give chase. In the ensuing pursuit, Nick managed to fly their plane through a seemingly impassably narrow opening between two peaks and the enemy pilots, their attention focused on getting the kill, failed to see their danger until too late. Both crashed into those mountainsides and a shaken Judy and grimly determined Nick made it home with only a few hundred bullet holes in their aircraft. The props on their plane had barely stopped turning when Nick and Judy bailed out of it and bee lined straight for the supple depot. When the sheep ram supply guy saw the grimly determined expressions on the flyers' faces he immediately protested that it wasn't his fault, that he had been ordered by two of his superiors (he named them) to foist the fuel onto them. His words shot the fury levels of both fox and rabbit off the scale! Though bigger and heavier than Nick and Judy combined, he was little match for the boiling mad duo! It took several mammals, each, to pull the infuriated pair away from him!

"I've heard of mammals going savage but this is the first time I've ever seen it!" stated some who were there.

The ram was rushed to the infirmary where his injuries, including a number of bite wounds, were treated. An investigation ensued; the officials in question hadn't wanted to turn the substandard fuel back in (they had accepted it without doing any test on it) because it would affect their evaluation ratings. In truth, they didn't see that there was any problem, outside of some extra maintenance.

"It isn't our fault that they got caught by an enemy long range fighter patrol," one pointed out.

As far as anyone knew, Nick and Judy made nothing but routine supply deliveries (and they made more than their share of those to maintain that image). Only a few knew about their coast watcher delivery and other deep in missions. In the end, all three officers were convicted of willful negligence and a few other more minor charges. The two higher ups were stripped of their ranks and sent home. The lower ranking officer was busted to private and sent to the front, very front, line as an infantry troop.

"While we understand your...justifiable anger at having your lives put at such risk, the court cannot allow anyone to assault others regardless of provocation!" the justice stated. "Therefore, you, Nicholas Wilde and Judith Hopps are hereby placed on six months’ probation!"

And the gavel came down.

* * * * * * *  
"I wonder if anyone noticed that Reginald didn't mention any specifics for our probation," Judy said.

"One or two may have. Don't know that it really matters, in the end," replied Nick.

"Being indispensable has some advantages," observed the bunny.

"Weellll, when most of the coast watchers figure that they owe you favors...." Nick said as he held his glass out to her.

"True, true," said Judy, tapping her glass to his.

Leaning back in his chair, Nick did a lazy scan of the room. It was evening meal time and most of the fifty some tables were occupied as well as nearly all the seats at the bar. Most of the cliental was male, and, over the next several minutes, he noticed more and more looks from a lot of those guys coming their way.

"And I doubt they are enraptured by my good looks and charm," he thought.

Nick hoped Judy had noticed those looks coming her way. He thought it likely that she had, she was too good of an observer not to.

"Might think that if she ignores it...."

Pause.

"Carrots, I need a really big favor from you," Nick said in a low voice as he set his glass on the table

"What is it?"

"All I need for you to do is relax and just sit there and not move," he said. "No matter what happens, remain absolutely still!"

"Okay, but why d...."

The next instant, Nick swung himself around towards her and then clamped his open jaws down on the sides of her neck. Judy felt sharp tooth points dig into the skin beneath her fur and, then, the bunny's eyes widened when those points broke through her skin. A sudden burst of instinctive panic flared up in her, a desire to try to fend off this attack, but she remained in the grip of a freeze. A strong tongue licked twice across the front of her throat, and then, she was free. Nick resettled himself in his seat and retrieved his glass from the table. A few heartbeats later, Judy's freeze melted away and she was able to move once more. Just on the edge of her senses, she felt the blood slowly oozing from her small wounds.

"Don't reach for your neck," Nick whispered. "Let the blood soak through your fur so that it becomes visible."

He, then, held his glass out to her. Judy, unthinkingly, extended her own and tapped it to his. Covertly scanning the great room, the rabbit woman noted that the eyes of nearly everyone there were on them. Some patrons looked surprised or confused, most looked interested, and a few, all males, showed expressions of displeasure or disappointment. Her eyes picked out Liz and Judy saw a look of utter delight on the proprietress' face.

"Wow! He drew blood! They are serious!" Judy heard someone close by comment.

"She's got more nerve and trust than I ever would! No way I'd just sit still with a pred. type chewing on my neck!!" she heard a gray squirrel fem state.

"I'm not sure I would have if I'd known what was coming!" Judy thought, dazedly.

A few more minutes went by and then Nick suggested that they head upstairs to retire for the night. Still in a slightly foggy state, Judy let the fox guide her to the third floor. The next thing she knew, a door opened and she found herself propelled into Nick's rooms.

"Head into the bathroom and shower," he instructed while handing one of his clean shirts to her.

Once under the spray of water the mental mist that had clogged Judy's mind faded and her intellect came back to full.

 

Nick looked up at the sound of the door to the bathroom opening. In the doorway stood the well-groomed Judy with his shirt on her. She had buttoned the bulky, on her, garment all the way up and the lower hem stopped just a couple of inches above her ankles. Thing was, she wasn't just standing in the open doorway; she leaned against one side with her arm raised and laid on the frame and effecting a sleepy eyed sultry expression on her face.

"Hellooo there, big guy," she said in the husky voice of the 30s movie femme fatalles.

"Ohhhh, sweetheart, don't tease me like that!" he replied in his best Bogart voice.

They both snickered and then Judy came to the bed and hopped up on it to seat herself beside him. A silence went on a moment, then....

"You claimed me," Judy said, at last. "In front of all those mammals down there, you claimed me."

Her voice was calm and neutral as she made the statement.

"Sharp as ever!" Nick complimented. "Now, can you tell me why?"

Another minute passed.

"Huff, I'm an unattached female in a war zone where there is an overage of males and too few females," she said.

"And?"

"And, sooner or later, it is highly likely one or more of those males is not going to take 'No' for an answer to their...proposition."

Pause.

"Unless, unless my 'unattached' status changes," she finished.

"Bravo, bravo, the bunny is not dumb!" Nick cheered as he applauded.

Finished with his clapping, the vulpine effected a sober attitude.

"As you said, we are in a war zone. And for all of our evolution and intellect there are primal, some call them dark, even savage, instincts that get...magnified in the presence of death and probable death," he said.

"'The need to create, to reproduce, in the face of death and disaster. If this cannot be done with species member that can conceive then the act with, mainly, other species females will suffice'," Judy quoted.

Nick arched an eye ridge at her.

"Something my psyche instructor told us at one time," she provided.

"Darn good instructor!" Nick complimented.

"Soooo, how...serious, is this?"

"Claiming fits in between passing informal couples to just below formal matehood. The show of blood plus your not putting up any resistance puts this one on the high end of the scale."

"And you did it in the presence of a group of mammals for plenty of witnesses."

"By now, the word on us is out all over town. This time tomorrow, it'll be all over the island. And by the end of next week...."

There was another long pause.

"So, this claim is not...final," Judy said.

"Oh, by the Great Maker, no!" Nick said. "Best way to think of it is as a trial matehood to see how things work out before going to full formal matehood."

"A marriage with a relatively easy out," Judy said.

"Yes," he answered. "You and I have been together, flying and here, enough that a goodly number of people are of the belief that we are already lovers. This cements that impression for them. As such, those males that are intending to have you will, hopefully, be discouraged from doing so. Plus, since so many know about this and its meaning, they'll be more willing to look out for you and render you more protection than you might get if you were still unattached."

"And now, we're here, in your rooms, to reinforce things."

"Yes. After such a showing, it's expected that the couple involved get together for some...intimate time," Nick said.

The tod looked to the room's big closet.

"I've got a cot and spare blankets stashed there. I'll get them out and sleep on...."

A finger pressed to the front of his muzzle lips silenced him.

"Your room so you sleep in your bed," Judy said.

"You're going to take the cot?" Nick asked, quizzically.

That comment earned him a dirty look!

"We're supposed to get intimate, you said! That means, morning shower or not, that your scent should be pretty strong on me! And..."

She ran her eyes up and down his form.

"...mine on you! That's not going to happen if we sleep apart!" Judy pointed out. "So, my vulpine partner in crime, get in the bathroom, do what you need to do, and come out in just your under shorts!"

"Yes, ma-am!" Nick said as he got up.

When he came back, he found Judy already under the thin covers. Nick slid onto the bed, raised the covers to get under them...and stopped. Judy was down to only her panties.

"Getting daring or just wanting to tempt me?" he said as he pulled to covers over himself.

"If I really wanted to do the latter I wouldn't have anything on at all!" she said as she snuggled herself up against the front of Nick's body.

"Ahhhhhh, you test an ole fox's meddle!" he sighed as he put one arm around Judy.

"Cuddles and snuggles for now," the bunny said, sleepily, into his chest fur. "The more intimate things will come soon enough."

And with that last comment the pair dozed off.


	2. Fox, Rabbit, and the Hounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another installment of Nick and Judy's adventures in the south and Central Pacific during the Zootopia world's version of World War 2.
> 
> Note: this story is based on an actual event.

In the darkened cockpit, Judy dialed the radio to another frequency band. She was trying to distract herself from the fact that barely eleven feet from her were four 450-pound (not including modifications) aerial drop depth charges inside the engine nacelle bomb bay. The thought of 290 pounds of Torpex (half again the explosive power of TNT) each contained made her nervous.

"And their twins are nesting in the same position in the left nacelle!" she thought. 

The doe fervently hoped that Finnik was right about the safety features that would keep those explosive objects from going off except when they were supposed to.

"If he's wrong, it'll be one heck of a fireworks display for a second or two!" she thought as she returned her attention to the radio. "Only...comfort, if you want to call it that, is that if that happens neither of us will feel a thing!"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Half awake, Judy snuggled herself closer, if that was possible, into the wall of fur the front of her body was up against. She really didn’t want to wake up, everything felt oh so warm, soft, and very comfortable.

“Mmmmmm, haven’t felt anything close to this since my last sleep pile with my sibs,” Judy thought.

Still, the waking world called. White colored fur greeted her opening eyes and as they moved about the bunny caught red fur on the upper and lower borders of that field of white.

“Oh,” Judy said as she remembered the previous evening.

Their little celebration that turned into Nick’s vulpine claiming of her in front of 80+ mammals. Their going to his rooms and the talk they had about that claiming. And her insistence that they sleep together.

“Morning, Carrots,” said Nick. “I thought about waking you up a bit earlier but you looked so comfortable and…”

Judy pulled back and locked in on the fox’s eyes with a sharp gaze of her own. The tod, his head propped up on one hand, chuckled at the dagger stare.

“…adorable,” he finished.

“Well, he stayed away from ‘cute’,” Judy thought as she got up.

Bailing out over the side of the bed, the bunny doe donned the shirt Nick had loaned her, went to the door that led out to the hallway, and eased it open a crack. She listened, and, hearing no one close by, opened it further to peer out. Seeing an empty corridor, she dashed across the hallway to her room and entered. A couple moments later, the bunny repeated the listen then look procedure and, still an empty hall, returned to Nick’s room. The fox was seated on the bed with his grooming kit next to him and already working a comb through his chest fur. After setting down the spare clothing she carried, Judy came to the bed and tossed her own kit on it, and then got on herself. Nick looked at her with a curious eye as she opened her kit and picked out a brush and a couple of combs.

“I’ll work on your back fur,” she said.

“I can do that…” he began.

“We can groom faster if we help each other,” Judy pointed out. “And it helps get a bit more of our scent on each other.”

After a second’s thought, Nick nodded and returned to working on himself as Judy began to brush the disarrayed fur on his back. When done there, she turned her attention to his tail.

“Fascinated with my bottle brush appendage?” he asked after Judy spent more time running her hands over and through the fur than brushing it.

“Bottle brushes aren’t this soft…or fascinating,” she replied.

Nick chuckled at that. Having dealt with taking care of his tail all of his remembered life he saw it as just another part of himself to deal with. That someone saw it as an object of interest was a new thing. When Judy was done grooming him, he turned to her so he could work on her back. When it came to her tail Nick insisted that she instruct him on how to brush and comb her powder puff so it was at its best. He could almost feel the heat of blush radiating from her ears as he followed her instructions. Unlike his tail, where he brushed and combed from tail root towards tip, one brushed from the bottom upwards on a bunny’s tail. As he did that he the heat from that blush went up several degrees in temperature and grinned. When finished, the two dressed in their fresh clothing and headed for the door to the hallway. Their exit from Nick’s rooms could not have been better timed as three other mammals were there to see them coming out. After a polite exchange of “Good morning.” s, the fox and rabbit headed for the stairs. Arriving at the big front room, they saw that about half of the seating there was filled. Selecting an empty table, Nick held the chair for Judy then slid it to the table after she seated herself and then set a chair close next to her and sat down. A cursory scan of the room revealed that many mammals were looking their way. Most had curious to neutral expressions on their faces while a small number of them, mostly males, ranged from disgusted to disappointed.

“Hello!” said a familiar voice off to their right.

Elizabeth, a red deer fem, handed each of them a menu.

“Hi, ‘Liz. Chicken, cheese, and tuna omelet for me with a side of blueberry scones and big glass of milk,” said Nick as he handed his menu back.

“Hmmmm, buttered green beans, a tossed salad, a slice of cornbread.”

Judy gave ‘Liz a hopeful look.

“Any purple clover available?” she asked.

“Sigh, I’m afraid not, dear,” came the reply. “However, we do happen to have a few bundles of golden barley stalks that were ‘accidently’ included in a shipment we got two days ago.”

Judy’s ears went straight up! Barley stalks were high on almost any herbivore’s list of dietary delights and golden barley was the best of that plant variety. Since the start of the war they, along with the desired clover, were considered a luxury food and, therefore, darned near impossible to get beyond the local areas where they were grown.

“Please, yes!” Judy said.

“Two bundles?” the proprietress asked.

The bunny nodded enthusiastically. After taking Judy’s menu, Liz looked at the pair and said:

“I’m glad you two made things pretty much official between you. George and I have known for months that you belong together. So have a lot of others.”

After she left, Judy gave Nick a speculative look. He gave her an easy smile and a shrug of his shoulders.

“I did say that many think we are already a pair,” he pointed out.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“Mr. Wilde.”

Nick, seated on a low scaffold set by his larger plane, looked down to see a cheetah standing close by. He recognized him, he worked for the local governor.

“Yes?”

“Governor’s compliments, sir. Mr. MacFarland requests you and your crew come to his office in an hour to discuss a matter of small importance,” the feline said.

“Okay, I’ll be there after I clean up.”

* * * * * * * * * * * 

“The coast watcher team on Gavvavodu Island has radioed for help. The enemy has brought in some bloodhounds and they are very concerned about being tracked down by them,” MacFarland explained.

Gavvavodu Island was close to 1,100 miles north and east of their position and some 800 miles of that distance was within enemy held waters and territory. The place was a sea and air crossroads and, thusly, a very important area that needed watching over. Apparently the enemy had figured out that that was what was going on. After their regular foot patrols didn’t net anything (due to warnings to the “watchers” from the locals) they brought in the bloodhounds. At present, they were getting dogs and their handlers acclimatized to the island’s tropical environment.

“In about another week they will begin the serious hunt for our watchers. After that it is only a matter of time before they locate our people,” the cape buffalo said.

“And you want us to go in and pull them out,” Judy said.

Their prototype Martin heavy seaplane had more than enough range for them to get there and back and as she and Nick had already made a couple of deliveries to that team they had experience with the area. Making an extraction run shouldn’t be difficult.

“As a last resort, yes.”

“Last resort?” questioned Nick. “That means you’ve got something else that you want to try first. And we are part of it.”

“Yes. What we wish is to try is to eliminate the dogs and handlers.”

“And how do you propose to do that?” queried Finnick.

“The engine bomb bays on your Martin can hold as much as 3000 pounds each, correct?”

“A bit more than 4000 each,” replied Finnick.

“What we…I propose is that we put aerial drop bombs in those bays and make a bombing on the base where those dogs are housed.”

The resulting several seconds of silence was deafening.

"You want us to do WHAT?!" exclaimed an utterly incredulous Judy.

"Make a bombing run on the enemy airfield at Gavvavodu island," Reginald repeated, patiently.

“That is the military’s bailiwick,” Nick pointed out.

“Due to the limited number of long range bombing aircraft, and the need to use them for long range patrolling, we have not convinced the military of the urgency to send a plane for a strike against a base that has a number of fighter aircraft that would intercept them during any daytime bombing run.”

“As would happen to us!” Judy stated.

“Thus the need to do this as a night run so the fighters have very little chance of interfering,” Finnick chimed in.

“Yes,” replied Reg. “The moon is waning, so if done some time over the next several nights there will be enough light to make out the base’s runway and set up for the drop. We want to use at least four bombs to get the best possible chance of having at least one land close enough to the dog pens to seriously injure or kill them. The drop altitude would have to be between 1000 to 1200 feet. We would prefer lower but that would increase the chance of you being damaged by the resulting explosions.”

Several seconds of silence later….

“With the parameters you have just laid out, this mission is a no go,” Finnick flatly stated.

Judy felt relief at the diminutive fox’s statement…until she saw the questioning expression on Nick’s face as he looked to his partner.

“And what would have to change to get a green light?” the cape buffalo asked.

Finnick gave Nick a thoughtful look.

“I want to hear what you have to say before making up my mind,” Wilde said.

“Alright, here it is….”

* * * * * * * * * * *

That was six days ago. For two days the fox and rabbit practiced flying runs over an island that had an almost finished runway of similar length as the one on Gavvavodu. Drop after drop of modified 55 gallon drums, filled with sand, were done from a height of 1100 feet on the chosen area. After trying the runs at different speeds they found a speed of 120 miles per hour gave them the best spread of the weapons.

“Any slower and it’s likely to give the AA gun crews a good chance of hitting us,” Nick said.

Next, they made runs for three nights until they were pretty consistent at getting about half of the weapons within the target circle. Meanwhile, Finnick was busy making modifications to eight depth charges he had chosen to use in place of regular bombs.

“The casings on these things are made of thinner metal so the fragments have less mass. As such, should any hit the plane they will do so with less energy than bomb splinters, which have decidedly more mass,” Finnick explained.

“What’s this for?” Nick asked as he indicated the four-foot length of six-inch diameter pipe welded on the front of the charge.

“It’s called a ‘standoff detonator’. We want the most out of the explosive power of these charges. If they hit the ground like normal bombs at least 40% of the explosion goes into the ground. This…”

Finnick run a paw hand the length of the pipe to stop at the end cap on the front of it.

“…jars the charge and closes the detonator circuit while it…they are a couple of feet from hitting the dirt.”

“And that allows more of the explosion to do more of the real ‘work’ we want it to,” Judy concluded.

“Correct.”

“And this?” she asked, pointing to the rear of the container.

“Drag chute. Opens up a couple of seconds after release. Gets the nose pointed down and slows the fall a few seconds to give you more time to get clear.”

The drums that were used for their practice drops had included the chutes.

None of the three had any idea what strings Reginald ‘pulled’ but on the second day of practice they had air recon photos of their target to examine. The area where the hounds were housed, as learned by the coast watchers, was marked on them. Judy felt uncomfortably concerned about the nearly two dozen antiaircraft guns salted around the base.

“You should arrive about 1:00 AM local time, that’s a time when most mammals are at their least alert,” Reginald said.

“That’s day time mammals, not nocturnals,” Nick pointed out. 

“Yes, that’s true. Still, they are a long way from the frontline and, hopefully, feeling somewhat complacent as a result. They aren’t expecting a night attack and by the time they know you are there you’ll be outbound.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

Out of the corner of his eye, Nick saw Judy working on getting another navigation position fix. She’d been doing those about every 20 minutes. It was a bit of overkill but…

“Keeps her busy so she doesn’t dwell that much on what’s coming up,” he thought.

Hidden behind his ‘cool steel nerved pilot’ front, he was as nervous as she was.

 

After a full day’s sleep and a meal, they did their preflight checks and then cranked up the two Wright R-2600 engines, and, after a warming up time, took off into the evening sky. At a cruising speed of 172 miles per hour it would take them about six and a half hours to reach the target area.

 

“About 80 miles from the island,” Judy announced.

“Check,” replied Nick.

He began a slow decent from their cruising altitude of 9,000 feet, taking nearly 20 minutes to get to 1100 feet. Once there, Nick eased back on the throttles until they were flying at 120 miles per hour. The light of the quarter moon was not much for Judy to see by but more than enough for Nick’s night eyes to pick out the shimmer of breakers at the shoreline of the island.

“There it is,” he called out.

Putting a set of binoculars to her eyes, the bunny could just make out the outline of the coast.

“Looks like the south coast,” she said after consulting her map.

Nick headed for the east side of the shore, then turned northwest. A moment later, he picked out the airstrip.

“Cinch up your safety harness, fluff. This might get rough really quick!” he said as he did the same.

The hounds and their handlers were situated about a hundred yards off to the right side and about a third of the way up along the strip. Toggling a pair of levers forward, Nick opened the nacelle bays doors. Nearly two miles away from target, the first lines of AAA lit up the darkness.

“Well, they sure are ‘complacent’,” Nick commented, cynically.

He was lined up and had to maintain his course and speed or the whole mission would end up being a ‘wash’.

“End of runway!” Judy called out.

Nick thumbed the drop button on his control wheel. A timing mechanism activated and it dropped the charges at half second intervals. As the last of them dropped clear, a line of tracers shot up in front of the nose barely a hundred feet away. Ramming the throttles forward and jinking right and left, Nick climbed away to put as much distance between them and all that flying steel as he could. Glancing to her right, Judy saw several bright explosions of light going off on the right side of the runway.

“Please work!” she thought fervently. “I don’t want us doing this again!”

Once out of range, Nick closed up the bay doors and turned for home. Seven hours later, they landed at the island they had practiced at, moored at the dock, and just about literally crawled off the plane. They were driven to their quarters where they shucked their clothing and dropped into the tiger sized bed, snugged up to one another, in an exhausted sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * *

“The run took about 100 seconds but it sure felt a lot longer!” Nick told Reg.

“A near eternity!” Judy put in.

The buffalo nodded in response. He’d already seen a report from the maintenance mammals that, in spite of all the ground fire, the Martin had nary a scratch on it. After resting for two days and nights, the fox and bunny had returned to Espiritu Santo. They had gone to George and ‘Liz’s hostel for a noon meal then off to the government building to turn in their travel expenses. From there, they ended up in Reginald MacFarland’s office to give him their report.

“Any idea on how we did?” Nick asked.

Reginald picked up a paper.

“According to the watchers, you managed to destroy six planes, three fighters, two bombers, and one long range patrol aircraft. Seven others sustained heavy damage and one hanger was nearly destroyed along with another being badly damaged. Several other structures were damaged, as well.”

“And the dogs…their handlers?” asked an anxious Judy.

Reg picked up another paper and handed it to her. She read the three words on it and then handed it over to Nick.

“Killed the lot!” it read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who are interested, the seaplane that Nick and Judy fly in this story is this one
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_PBM_Mariner#/media/File:Martin_XPBM-1_Mariner_in_flight_c1939.jpeg
> 
> with some changes/modifications done to it by engineering genus, Finnik.
> 
> Additional info:
> 
> The use of depth charges for ground attacks (they took out the pressure activated triggers and stuck in regular bomb fuses) was brought up in the book "Challenge for the Pacific, Guadalcanal" by Robert Leckie.  
> They used, mainly, the P-39 Aircobra (and its export version the P-400) for ground attack since they didn't do well in dogfights against the Zero. Between the 37 mm cannon in the nose, the wing machine guns, and the modified depth charges, the Japanese troops REALLY got to hating them.
> 
> As to the workings of bomb fuses the 70's BBC (I think) series "Danger UXB" "explains' the basic German bombs, why a number of them were set up not to explode right away, and the basics of the detonator in this episode:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK9MNVnllXo
> 
> from 17:25 through 20:30
> 
> The mission that Nick and Judy are on in this story is out of the same book. In that one, they detail a regular bomber to go do in the hounds. The "Killed the lot!" statement was the after action message that the coastwatcher sent.


End file.
